Maya Postclassic persistence in the Birds of Paradise Wetland Fields, Belize

Rapid decay of organic artifacts obscures our view of ancient tropical settlements. We present a study of architecture and artifact assemblages from an ancient settlement excavated at the Birds of Paradise (BOP) fields, the largest lidar and field-validated ancient Maya wetland field complex. The site's unique setting preserved architectural wood and provides exceptional evidence of Maya Terminal Classic (CE 800 to 1000) to Postclassic (CE 1000 to 1500) persistence within tropical wetlands through periods of large-scale societal and climate change. A new Bayesian chronological model tightens the occupation history for the broader BOP wetlands based on 14 new radiocarbon dates of wood and charcoal from this settlement. These wetlands and their preserved ancient wood face imminent destruction through modern land uses.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2026-03-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2521892123
Primary Topic
Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Maya Postclassic persistence in the Birds of Paradise Wetland Fields, Belize

Timothy Beach, Lara M. Sánchez-Morales, Byron Smith, David L. Lentz et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
article

Maya Postclassic persistence in the Birds of Paradise Wetland Fields, Belize

Timothy Beach, Lara M. Sánchez-Morales, Byron Smith, David L. Lentz, Fred Valdez, Duncan Cook, Sheryl Beach, Lori Phillips, Thomas H. Guderjan, Carlos Quiroz, William Pratt, Colleen Hanratty, Samantha Krause
article en

Abstract

Rapid decay of organic artifacts obscures our view of ancient tropical settlements. We present a study of architecture and artifact assemblages from an ancient settlement excavated at the Birds of Paradise (BOP) fields, the largest lidar and field-validated ancient Maya wetland field complex. The site's unique setting preserved architectural wood and provides exceptional evidence of Maya Terminal Classic (CE 800 to 1000) to Postclassic (CE 1000 to 1500) persistence within tropical wetlands through periods of large-scale societal and climate change. A new Bayesian chronological model tightens the occupation history for the broader BOP wetlands based on 14 new radiocarbon dates of wood and charcoal from this settlement. These wetlands and their preserved ancient wood face imminent destruction through modern land uses.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 123(10)
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (JP), English Heritage (GB), Texas State University (US), Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MW), Cal Poly Humboldt (US), The University of Texas at Tyler (US), New York University (US), University of Cincinnati (US), The University of Texas at Austin (US), Australian Catholic University (AU)
National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 37%
Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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Maya Postclassic persistence in the Birds of Paradise Wetland Fields, Belize — Timothy Beach, Lara M. Sánchez-Morales, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS